The Western Australia State Government is committed to supporting people of all ages and backgrounds to develop the confidence and skills they need to successfully participate in the workforce. The Department of Training and Workforce Development (DTWD) provides a range of specialist services, programs and subsidised training and courses to assist and support people to improve their employment prospects.
Rare was engaged by DTWD to develop a targeted marketing campaign to raise awareness of the training and employment opportunities available to under- represented groups in Western Australia.
With such a wide-ranging and diverse target audience, it was essential we treated each audience individually, not a one size fits all approach. These six under-represented audience groups are outlined below:
With our target audience from a broad range of backgrounds and with differing experiences within the workforce, we had to define and understand their motivations and barriers before commencement of any creative concepts of messages. We partnered with Metrix Consulting to carry out detailed primary research as part of this first phase.
Gathering the valuable insights from the primary research with Metrix led to a new brand proposition: Jobs and Skills WA is your supportive partner to a more fulfilled life.
Whilst working on targeting the under-represented audience groups campaign strategy, we identified a challenge driven by a key campaign objective. If we increase the demand amongst the target audience groups for training and employment, there needs to also be a supply of authentic employment opportunities and inclusivity within society for our audiences.
We proposed that DTWD develop a separate advertising campaign specifically to target the all- important Employers audience to:
As part of two complementary campaigns, we identified the following communication goals:
People believe that you need work experience to get a job. So, when you’ve been out of the workforce for a while, or you’ve never been given a chance, like the six under-represented groups, it feels like you don’t have much to offer. Instead of feeling empowered to work towards getting the job you want, these target audience groups are reminded of their sense of feeling ‘othered’ and judged by society. What if we could resonate with them by emphasising on how their life experience is just as meaningful? That their life experience is worth as much as work experience, and it is something that everyone has.
We wanted to demonstrate to our target audiences that they have more to offer than they realise. The campaign creative paired typical job ad requirements with traits that are often seen outside of a work context through their everyday life experiences. For example, a new mum multi-tasking at home by taking care of her baby, paying her bills and answering her phone or a teenager practising basketball for hours, showing their commitment and determination.
The ‘Life Experience’ creative concept was also applied to the Employers campaign, with the aim to show employers that employees’ life skills are transferable and can be a huge asset for their business. Adapting the campaign concept for both audiences allowed for a cost-efficient use of our production budget and allowed us to show a variety of authentic and impactful scenarios. Our integrated campaign empowered each target audience to believe that they have the skillset to contribute to the WA workforce and be an engaged member of society.
Bespoke media communication strategies were developed by Hearts & Science to target our six target audience groups across the required brand and retail key messages. Hearts & Science were able to explore target audiences to define their media habits, employment and education status to inform the most efficient media channels for reach and engagement.
